One Wild and Precious Life

A Sermon, and the Rest of My Sunday

So this is the first time (well, this year at least -- I think I might have done it once before in nearly 150 posts) that I've posted a sermon.  I wish I had posted my Thanksgiving sermon with the previous post, but I didn't.  So today I'm posting links to two.  I seem to be obsessed with gratitude this week -- there are worse things to be obsessed with!

Download Thanksgiving Day C, November 25, 2010

Download Advent 1A, November 28, 2010

There they are!  Now you can read them if you choose, or not if you don't!

Speaking of gratitude, what a great day it has been!  Church was great.  We switch to Rite I in Advent (also Lent -- traditional, nearly Elizabethan language, a more penitential tone), and we do a lighting of the Advent candle(s) (only 1 today  of course) during the service.

Since it's the last Sunday of the month, I've begun to do anointing and laying on of hands for healing after the service.  This is really pretty popular.  Today, the third month I've done this, I had maybe 10 people, all of whom were anointed for themselves, a couple of whom also asked prayers for others.  I've got to say that this is one of the most fulfilling sacraments that I do as a priest (anointing is a sacrament in the catholic (small c) tradition).  I think God marked and called me as a healer even when I didn't know it, back when I was a therapist.  Now I do know it's not me who's the healer, really -- but I get to be the vessel through which God heals -- or at least reminds people of God's healing will for them.  I've always treasured our Wednesday service of Eucharist and Healing -- but this recent addition on Sunday is Also very precious and life-giving to me.

I love this Advent book group!  I love Marcus Borg (don't tell)!  His chapter on the prophets blew me away.  Part of what I love is his story of his own experience, how the various meanings and interpretations of the prophetic writings became layered and nuaanced for him.  It leads me to reflect on my own religious experience, and the layers and depth and nuance that is still a living part of my faith journey.  I took Old Testament in seminary with one of the primo Old Testament scholars in the world (specializing in the prophets, incidentally), and his parting message to us is that Scripture, while timeless, must be re-interpreted for each generation of Christians, so it remains fresh and relevant, rather than a dusty old book up on the top shelf in the library.  Borg's comments on the Exodus stories only reinforced what we learned and experienced with  the Kerygma study our group just did.  It's so amazing that this stuff lives and applies now just as much as it did then.

And then I came home, put my turkey carcass in the soup pot with carrots, onions, and celery (and some water, of course), and just simmered it all afternoon.  I've turned it off to cool; I'll put it in the fridge tonight, and tomorrow I'll skim off the fat, and also skim out all the bones and veggie scraps, feeding pieces of gristle and skin to my kids (the dogs, of course).  Then I can heat it all again, add some fresh veggies, spices, and some Minnesota-grown wild rice that someone gave me, and cut up a few chunks of the turkey meat (a good use for white meat -- is it clear I prefer the dark meat for sandwiches?), and have a lovely soup.  Yum, yum, my mouth is already watering.

After the carcass went on to cook, I took a big, deep sleep on the sofa, with BBC America droning away.  I don't know what was on while I slept, but as I awoke, I got to see another show about penguins.  I love penguins.  Those deep sleeps are a little harder to wake from, but so very good and restful and satisfying.

Oh, and before that, I spent considerable time watching C-Span.  I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, because I'm sure most folks think C-Span is very boring or nerdy.  But I watched a panel from Emory University discuss raising the tone and quality of public discourse, and a couple of book discussions.  I find this even more compelling than "Sleepless in Seattle."  What's wrong with me, that I'd prefer watching  P.J. O'Rourke, with whom I don't even agree (but he is kind of cute), to Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan?  It just seems to feel really good to get my brain cells tickled once in a while.

Then this evening I watched TV for a while (some network dreck for my "junk food" quota, then a couple of amazing PBS shows, one called "Christmas in Yellowstone" that was awesome).  I did some reading and journaling, and now talking to all of you.

Overall, I couldn't really ask for a better Sunday.  Yay!  I hope to talk to you all more than I have till now.

Holiday Weekend

Wow!  I checked a lot of categories; I guess I have a lot to say tonight.  It's the eve of a holiday for me -- not exactly a "holiday weekend," as my title implies, but a day off my normal routine, at least.  Ordinarily, it would have been Friday, Saturday, and Monday off, with only the morning service at church.  But this week I had a wedding rehearsal on Friday (with rehearsal dinner afterward), the wedding itself Saturday morning (with reception luncheon afterward), and two sermons to write, one for the wedding, one for Trinity Sunday at church.  So all I get is a day, but ah, what a lovely day I've got planned!  But sigh -- I don't think the weather is going to cooperate -- 60% chance of rain tomorrow. 

When I was a little girl, my mother and I would go camping on Memorial Day Weekend; it was the opening of the summer camping and recreation season.  Our habitual haunt was Raccoon Lake State Recreation Area, about 1/2 hour from our home.  We would set up our tent in a campsite just inside the edge of the woods, so there was plenty of shade, and plenty of trees from which my mother would string rope to hang large sheets of plastic.  The plastic sheltered our campsite from rain, but also from any debris that might fall from the trees.  It made a cozy, covered "living space" under which we'd place our picnic tables, our food and supplies, and our Coleman camp stove.  The campfire would be outside the plastic "roof," of course.  My camping memories are lovely ones, but it nearly always rained on Memorial Day weekend.  There was usually enough sunshine and warmth to make the adventure worthwhile, but yes, we got rain, too.  Memorial Day Weekend was always punctuated with the plip, plip, plip of raindrops on the plastic overhead, with a wet sleeping bag where our canvas tent got wet, and the need to wear warm jeans, socks, and a sweatshirt, rather than the brand new swimsuit and flip flops I had for the summer. So tomorrow will remind me of my childhood camping days, I fear.

Some of the things I've planned I can still do inside, rather than outside on my porch:

A little creative work can certainly be done inside, though I confess that it really feels more like carefree play when I'm on the sunny back porch.

But there are also lots of things that can't happen inside, and almost certainly won't happen.  I can't really burn my brush pile at all, because we got a couple of downpours today.  It really takes 2-3 days of dry weather to dry out my brush well enough to burn, especially since some of it is still fairly green and recent trimming, and some fair-size logs that I pulled out of the wood chips that were given to me.

I'm not going to want to wrestle wood-chip mulch for my labyrinth in the rain.

I'm not sure even one whole day could make much progress in my veggie garden.  I was actually going to pay someone to come and help me clear out the jungle that it has become, but he called a couple of days ago and said he's been in an auto accident, and now he really can't help me.  If I still want help, I'm going to have to find someone else.  Of course, the pouring rain is a pretty good time to pull weeds -- lots of nice, soft earth, if I don't mind getting filthy and soaked (but that's the gardener's lot, anyway!).

So this probably isn't going to happen for me tomorrow, but I may get something done:

Oh, my, but it looks so lovely and orderly!

But perhaps I'll get a run with the dogs in between rain showers.  My weight loss is continuing; I'm still keeping my rules about increasing activity and eating salads and not drinking alcohol (though I had 2 glasses of wine at the wedding rehearsal dinner).  I'm a little frustrated because I seem to have hit a plateau last week, despite good behavior (I do expect it after 14 pounds, and am surprised it didn't come sooner!), and now over the weekend, I ate and drank more than I should have, even though I came home and was a perfect little paragon of dietary virtue.  So that scale isn't really budging just now -- but it will again, O it will!  A new indulgence I've discovered is Crystal Light Sunrise Tangerine Strawberry.  Oh, yum, yum.  I've known about Crystal Light since the first time I went to Weight Watchers in 1989, but I never tried it until just a couple of weeks ago.  Oh, my.  Oh, yum.  It kind of reminds me of having a pitcher of Kool-Aid around when I was a young married girl.  My only caution is that I can just about overdose on Aspartame, if I'm not careful.  And despite what I heard at Weight Watchers oh, these many years ago, it really doesn't substitute for good, clear, filtered water.

Today, of course, I preached on the doctrine of the Trinity, since it's Trinity Sunday.  If you're even slightly interested, I highly recommend Karen Armstrong's latest, The Case for God.  She does a really, really great job of describing the development of the doctrine of the Trinity, which was originally intended as a spiritual exercise that, rather than being fully understood, was meant to show us how utterly incomprehensible God actually is.  We were never meant to understand the Trinity.  And furthermore, faith originally had little to do with intellectual comprehension and agreement, but rather with loyalty and commitment.  Whether I understand the Trinity, whether I agree with the Church's doctrine of the Trinity, I stand behind and within it, and I commit my whole being to the Triune God and the teachings of Christ.  That's all that really matters!

While we're talking about books, I'm also listening to a really great one.  Most of my fiction "reading" is done in the car as I drive on my daily errands, visits, and meetings.  I'm currently listening to The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  It's one I can barely "put down" -- I want to just keep driving and driving so I can hear more and more of this story.

So tomorrow I plan to sleep in (which seems to mean about 7:30 these days, since I go to bed so early), get some exercise, and do some creative work.  I plan to play a lot and work just a little.  I might get some yard work done.  I feel very grateful for this good little life of mine.  I hope you all have something delicious planned for your day off!

Promise

Oh, my, it has been such a long time since I've written!  It's a very busy time in my church life, and the days and weeks have whizzed right by me!  I have been eavesdropping on other folks' blogs, but not writing anything on my own.  This has been a happy time.  Committees are meeting, the annual pledge campaign is over and done with, and I'm buzzing along, feeling energized and actually efficient (unusual for me, that last!).

I did get on the scale Wednesday morning, and the number scared me!  How has my weight got so out of control?  Since I've been running, my clothes have not really become tighter, and so I just ate along in blissful ignorance.  But not since Wednesday:  I'm back to 7 important, attentive, and healthy eating practices:  1) writing down what I eat and totalling up Weight Watchers' points (Thursday, when I started watching, but not really restraining yet, I found that I ate twice the recommended points!  Talk about out of control!); 2) eating only at the dining room table, rather than in front of the television and/or computer; 3) drinking at least 6 glasses of water every day; and 4) eating at least one salad every day.  Those simple things go a long way toward helping me lose weight.  Since I started, I've also decided/remembered to 5) take vitamins every day; 6) get enough sleep, so I'm not eating food because of sleep deprivation; and 7) exercise every day, rather than 3-5 times a week.  That meant I had to run late this afternoon (after church, lunch, and a snooze -- required for priests after church on Sunday).  Here are a couple of pictures I took:

slightly blurry doggies (Clementine on left, Buddy on right), attending to who knows what, and,

The evening sky on the last leg, as we headed home.

Anyway, my eating:  so far, as of yesterday, I've lost 2 pounds.  Not bad for 3 days' work!

Next, the garden.  I've had one 2-hour session with my "gardening coach" (she laughed when I called her that), and we cleaned out lots of stuff from the bed that circles my (half-circle) front porch.  We've pushed it back toward the porch by about a foot (it was about 4 feet deep -- too wide to really cultivate easily), and I gave a bunch of stuff to her, and also to my gardening neighbor -- Japanese anemones, hardy geraniums, and columbine (there are plenty left in this bed!).  My veggie garden is ready to put to bed, but I just haven't got it done yet.  I'm still working on mulching paths (thick layer of newspaper and 3-4" of wood chips), but my asparagus is still green, and the frost hasn't yet killed my rosemary or thyme.  I'm really hoping they might winter over, if I cover them with row cover cloth when it gets colder.  It has already been down below freezing at night, and they're looking good.

In December I'm giving an Advent quiet day for the Daughters of the King (watch the music if you follow the link -- it's obnoxious) for the whole diocese (they're an Episcopal women's organization dedicated to prayer and service), and I'm going to open it up to everyone in this parish, too.  I've decided to help them use collage to "explore their souls."  I'm not an official Soul Collage instructor, but this technique is too good to not share.  I'll also be using a "treasure map" technique that my friend Fran taught me.  It is a very powerful form of affirmation for the future.  Someone gave me a big stack of "National Geographic" magazines (great for collage), so I'm about ready to go on this one.  I've also been asked to do a quiet day for Churchwomen United next fall (2008), so that's exciting, too.  I love doing these days, and really hope someday that hungry hearts from all over this mountain, regardless of denomination, might be interested in attending them.  It's a time when I can do several half-hour sessions of intensive teaching, with quiet periods and lunch in between.  I can share more and different material than there's time to do in a sermon or even an adult forum class.

Oh, and I've been to a clergy conference in Gatlinburg that focused on church leadership and growth, and that got me all energized and inspired.  Once I share it with my vestry (like a parish council or governing board) I want to share it with the whole parish in a special parish meeting.  I know I can help them grow -- but I want everyone to know what it will take (lots of work and some money on their part), and what they're likely to get.  This is a cozy little retirement parish, and I'm not sure they'll be happy about the changes that growth might engender.  Forewarned is forearmed, my mother used to say.

Next October our Cumberland Adult Reading Council (a program started by our church) will be doing an elegant art show and silent auction with wine and hors doeurves that my friend Rara Schlitt (she's the artist who painted my Black Julian) has agreed to do for us.  We are so excited about that, too!  We're developing the board (or trying to) to get people with certain skills and energy.  And later this month, I'll be on (local, cable) television, promoting the program!  I love it when I can be part of something really noble, and help it grow!

My reading is coming along for the Haden Institute.  I have finished Going Home: Jesus & Buddha as Brothers, by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk.  His discussions of the need for mindfulness and the connection between the living-vividly-in-the-moment that is a result of mindfulness, and the kingdom of heaven, spoke directly to me.  Now I'm working on Tilden Edwards' Spiritual Director, Spiritual Companion.  Sometimes I forget how much I like his style and his ideas; I've been reading his books since I came back to church in the late 1980s.  I think I've read about everything he's ever written, and he is a Wisdom figure for me.  I'm still plugging along on Karen Armstrong's The Battle for God, about the rise of fundamentalism in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.  I love being stimulated by her ideas and content, but she can be a tough read sometimes.  My book study group just finished The Faith Club by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner (3 women, a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew meet to discuss their faith together), and we're starting The Misunderstood Jew by Amy-Jill Levine in 2 weeks.  Except for the last one, which I haven't started yet, I highly recommend any of these books for those interested in topics related to religion and spirituality.  In my car I just finished listening to The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich.  I loved it, too.  I listen to mostly fiction in the car while I'm driving.  I'm also just at the end of a Rita Mae Brown mystery (light and fun, as always), and about to listen to The Secret, to see what I really think about it firsthand.  I suspect there's a little bit of that good old American, "You can do it if you try, just think positive" slant to it, but I want to see for myself.  Next in my line of audio books is Water for Elephants, which my friend Rara gave to me.  I can't wait to read this!  I love elephants!  In fact, Rara has made friends with a zookeeper from the Knoxville Zoo, and I told her I'd really like to meet the elephants.  I think it could happen.  The Bible Study at church is just finishing Peter Gomes' The Good Book.  Whew!  When I look at this list, I can see that I'm doing lots of reading -- lots more than I realized.  Sometimes I bemoan my lack of reading, and this is a most excellent reminder.

So there's a lot hopping here on this mountain, and I'm one happy camper.  Our autumn foliage display just passed its peak this week (later than I've seen it in the 4 autumns that I've been here), and we were pleasantly surprised at the beauty -- we all thought the drought would ruin it.  I'll try to post more often, and maybe I won't have so much to say each time!  Those of you who pray could hold me in your prayers -- for strength, endurance, and dietary self-control!

This & That

It has been a busy week; a beloved parishioner died, and planning a funeral, combined with my own emotional reaction, makes it all seem busier than it actually has been.  So I haven't had much time to think profound thoughts or get out in the garden (also above 80 every day, including humidity percentage).

When I looked over my film list, I caught 3 movies that I saw and did not highlight:  Cabaret, Rear Window, and Dr. Strangelove.  I caught others that I'm pretty sure I saw part of, but either fell asleep or was too high to remember the plots or endings (high? me?  It was a long, long time ago).  I think I've fallen asleep at least twice during Citizen Kane -- does that count as one complete viewing?

I'm looking forward to Top Chef on Bravo tonight.  I just watched a couple of reruns of Project Runway, and Next to Queer Eye, that's got to be my favorite Bravo reality TV show.  But Top Chef is fascinating because they know so much about food (I had to Google geoduck -- not poultry at all!), and they combine things in such bizarre ways -- sometimes making me think, "Hmmmm!" but other times the food seems just plain bizarre.

I'm getting more and more excited about my vacation.  All arrangements are in place, and I'm trying to decide what clothes to take, etc.  I might even bring a BIG suitcase, even for 2 weeks.  I can't wait to spend 2 weeks with my best friend on the shores of Lake Erie.  Maybe we'll even set up a card table in the water and play cards there, as we saw some folks do more than once!

But finally, my most important discovery:  Last night I saw Paul McCartney on Larry King.  He's 65 now, and  doesn't exactly look like ten miles of bad road, but maybe five.  But hey -- the last few years haven't been easy on him.  I still wonder when he's going to figure out that his destiny is to grow old with me?  I mean it.  I need to meet this man, but since he's not religious, I don't figure I have any trick cards to play.  If he was a religious guy, I could play the priest card.  Oh, well.  If you get any big ideas, be sure to let me know.  I guess I stand a better chance with some of the Nashville cuties, since I'm within 2 hours of there.

No pictures this time, though the lamb chop I had for dinner tonight was a sight for sore eyes.